Wilfred Jackson

Beyond the realm of dedicated Disney aficionados, few people recognize the name Wilfred Jackson--that is, until some of his feature-length animated credits as a Director are mentioned: "Cinderella," "Alice in Wonderland," "Peter Pan," and "Lady and the Tramp," all made in collaboration with Clyde Geronimi and Hamilton Luske. Jackson dutifully worked his way up the Disney ladder in the 1930s and '40s, laboring on dozens of short cartoons and then working, often uncredited, as a sequence director for some of Walt Disney's other famous films. The first major partial assignment of his career was 1937's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," which led in short order during the early days of World War II to "Pinocchio," "Fantasia," and "Dumbo." For the ultra-ambitious 1940 symphonic oeuvre, "Fantasia," Jackson designed the "Night on Bald Mountain-Ave Maria" segment. Perhaps solidifying the notion that animation work was recognized as an art form in Europe before America, Jackson got major recognition over the years in Cannes, Berlin, and Venice, but never on the home front. Five years before his death, he finally received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Annies. Jackson's last work for the studio was 11 episodes of the early TV series "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" between 1954 and 1958.